While the poverty rate in rural central Virginia has decreased, poverty among the urban population in Charlottesville has increased, University sociology Prof. Steven Nock said.
According to Nock, the increase can be attributed to increased urban poverty nationally.
"In part in the last decade, at least in the last four years, there has been a modest increase in poverty," Nock said. "Poverty rates in the counties have gone down. Poverty rates in the city have gone up, which is not unusual. Charlottesville is no exception to national trends."
Additionally, Nock said the demographic make-up of the urban population creates a situation in which many of those living in poverty are women and children.
"A lot of poor people are very young children and elderly people, especially women," Nock said. "This is in part because of increased life expectancy. The life expectancy is longer by seven or eight years, in America, for women compared to men."
Furthermore, Nock stated there are more unmarried women living in cities than in rural areas. Many of these women were not high earners when they were younger, and now that they are retired, they live off nothing more than social security.
"Poverty is largely a single mother and her children situation," Nock said. "The way we count poverty is not just the mother, we count the children."
In Charlottesville, the issue of poverty has been taken up by students at the University. Nursing Prof. Deborah Conway, a co-founder of Women United in Philanthropy, a group which motivates women in the Charlottesville area to contribute to charitable causes, said students are sometimes unaware of the area's poverty problem.
"When they live here as students, they think that the people have everything they need," Conway said. "Once they start going into the neighborhoods and into the homes of the impoverished people here, they are very surprised by the level of need in our community."
She said students "really rise to the occasion of helping people." Both Conway and Nock said students at the University can play a role in decreasing the burdens of poverty. Nock points out that "through Madison House and other programs U.Va. students are part of the story."
Second-year College student Megan Wong, who has participated in the Madison House Daycare program, said she encountered the poverty in and around Charlottesville through her involvement with the organization.
"My experience with Madison House has brought me to work with children of diverse backgrounds and has given me a greater appreciation for everything I have in my own life," Wong said.
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